Tag: Villanova Wildcats

Following the lead of college football, which hosts a weekly rankings reveal to build anticipation for the Playoff, basketball's NCAA Tournament selection committee took to unveiling a Sweet 16 preview in early February a few seasons ago. The 2018 edition of this exercise, as unnecessary as it might be, confirms much of what we already…

Illuminating the pride, passion and fun of college football is the theme for The Open Man's 2017 college football coverage. It seems especially important at this time in our culture to embrace those things that bring us joy. When I received my first gig covering college football, I promised myself I would never be jaded…

The final sequences of the 2016-17 college basketball season featured all five starters on the North Carolina Tar Heels' national championship-winning roster touching the ball. Those five Heels -- Justin Jackson, Kennedy Meeks, Joel Berry II, Theo Pinson and Isaiah Hick -- were all either juniors or seniors. North Carolina winning the 2017 national championship…

The NBA staked claim to Christmas Day in recent years, much in the same manner the NFL uses Thanksgiving as a showcase date and MLB owns July 4. College football once owned prime real estate on Dec. 25. From 1979 through 2001, with a one-year resurrection in 2003, the Blue-Gray Classic brought together players from…

Year 3 of the FCS Kickoff met the lofty standard set Year 2. A season ago, the North Dakota State dynasty suffered a rare setback, giving up a late touchdown in a loss at Montana. Jacob Smoak's 51-yard field-goal attempt at the end of regulation nearly made back-to-back FCS Kickoff losses for the Bison. The…

Another happy Friday to you all, a pleasant July, and a merry Canada Day to our neighbors up north. Much like America's own Independence Day, Canada Day celebrates the nation's gradual departure from the British Empire with the ratification of the 1867 Constitution Act. See, before England craved isolationism, it sought to unify the world…

Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema advocated for the NCAA allowing undrafted underclassmen to return to college without losing eligibility. You can check out his entire interview with Bo Mattingly here, in which he says he plans to reach out to other coaches for their support. Razorbacks' offensive lineman Denver Kirkland found himself among the 30…

Some mood music for today's news, courtesy of Ludacris. Southern hospitality, indeed. Ludacris made the kind of money SEC programs typically reserve for an FCS opponent the Saturday before Rivalry Week, and he didn't have to take a single hit. GEORGIA BULLDOGS Jacob Eason-Mania is Running Wild Georgia freshman quarterback phenom Jacob Eason's impressive play…

In the summer of 2010, just prior to the start of a new college football season, I wrote a feature story for CBS on the success of the Philadelphia's Div. I college football programs: Penn, Temple and Villanova. Temple was coming off its first bowl season in 30 years, Penn had won the Ivy League…

Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman and the actor who portrayed him, Aaron Paul, have something in common: They're both all about the Blue. Go BSU!!!!— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) September 5, 2015 The Smurf Turf is a lot better for you than Heisenberg's creation, make no mistake -- well, unless you're a Boise State opponent. Former Boise…

'Tis the season, my friends. The eager anticipation is almost at a conclusion with opening night of the 2015 FBS football season almost upon us. The 2015 campaign opened with a bang last Saturday, as Montana scored a touchdown in the final seconds to upend four-time defending national champion North Dakota State. The Championship Subdivision…

Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen proposed an intriguing idea that extends five years of eligibility to players who exceed a certain grade point average. As he said to AL.com, the concept is pretty simple at its core: "Instead of punishing guys for doing bad, why not reward guys for doing good?" Dan Mullen's pitch…

Coming off a 2014 season in which the national championship game featured two members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference -- Illinois State and four-time reigning champion North Dakota State -- small wonder the preseason STATS FCS All-American is heavy on MVFC representation. Five 1st Team FCS All-American nominees hail from the Missouri Valley: Illinois…

Folks erroneously set the countdown clock to college football at 100 days last week. For those whose calendars are set thusly, I have some strong #WellActually for you: the 2015 FCS season starts Aug. 29 when North Dakota State visits Montana for what should be a tremendous matchup of two of the nation's best teams.…

Questions Still Linger in SEC West After Spring Games David Brandt, Associated Press The SEC West has garnered a reputation as college football's toughest division, and deservedly so: five of the last seven national champions came out of the SEC West, and all seven of its members finished the 2014 season above .500. But with…